Hungarian Parliament members voice support for EU membership candidate status for Georgia
“In crisis situations, the EU would do well to grasp the opportunity to grant candidate status to countries that have worked a lot to achieve that goal over the past years. [..] We reject any measures of the European Commission seeking to create a division between those countries”, he said. Photo: Lorinc Nacsa/Facebook.
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Lorinc Nacsa, a member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Hungary, said on Wednesday Hungary would support granting Georgia and Bosnia-Herzegovina the European Union membership candidate status alongside Ukraine and Moldova.
The European Commission last week recommended the European council to grant EU membership candidacy for Ukraine and Moldova, while recommending granting Georgia a “European perspective” before assessing how the country meets a number of conditions for receiving the membership candidate status. The recommendation is expected to be confirmed by the EU on Friday.
Speaking to MTI news agency on the sidelines of a summer session of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly in Strasbourg, Nacsa said the integration of Georgia and Bosnia-Herzegovina “must not be considered separately from that of Ukraine and Moldova”, arguing the separate approach to the states would weaken the EU.
In crisis situations, the EU would do well to grasp the opportunity to grant candidate status to countries that have worked a lot to achieve that goal over the past years. [..] We reject any measures of the European Commission seeking to create a division between those countries”, he said.
Barna Zsigmond, another member of Parliament in the National Assembly of Hungary, also made comments about Georgia and said giving “full attention” to Ukraine and Moldova while “ignoring” Georgia and Bosnia-Herzegovina would be “tantamount to betrayal” and called it a “strategic and geopolitical mistake”.
Ukrainians, Moldovans and Georgians deserve to live in “free, democratic and prosperous” countries that are “proud and committed members” of the European family, a resolution approved by the European Parliament said on Thursday.
The Helsinki Commission, a United States Government agency monitoring security in Europe, on Wednesday urged the European Council to grant Georgia the European Union membership candidate status.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday congratulated his Georgian counterpart on Independence Day, which was marked on Thursday, stressing his country supported Georgia's Euro-Atlantic integration.
Ilia Darchiashvili, the Georgian Foreign Minister and Peter Siarto, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary gave “high evaluation” to the completion of Georgia's European Union membership questionnaire, handed over by the country ahead of schedule this week.
The European Union’s decision of not granting the membership candidate status to Georgia “contradicts the tasks of strengthening” the bloc, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Friday in a press briefing with his Georgian counterpart Ilia Darchiasvhili in Tbilisi.
Georgia has received “guaranteed promise” to become EU member
By having been granted the "European perspective" by European Union bodies, Georgia has received "a guaranteed promise" that it will "definitely become" a member of the EU, Georgian Foreign Minister Ilia Darchiashvili said on Friday.
The European Council’s decision on granting Georgia the European perspective, and matters of close partnership between Georgia and Hungary were discussed on Friday in a meeting between Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and the Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.